December 17, 2015

D.I.Y. White Photo Backdrop

I have no white walls in my house. Zero. I rented for years before we bought our first home and I was so tired of white that I splashed color everywhere. I have no regrets; I love my walls. I love my dark floors. I love the rich feel of color and warmth in our home.

So when it came to having a white backdrop for photos, I knew I would have to come up with something other than a wall. I saw this brilliant tutorial for a D.I.Y. home studio backdrop, but I didn’t have a space like that available that also had directional window light. The concept stuck with me though and I started looking through our house for another space that could work.

We have a built-in for our TV. It’s not ideal since that puts the TV directly within Henry’s reach (and he is really, really tempted to touch that screen), but it’s there and so that’s that. I realized, however, there’s enough space above that I could rig a roll of white craft paper that would be completely hidden unless I was using it.

I measured the distance across to make sure my wooden dowel and roll of paper weren’t too long for the space. Then I put the roll of paper on the dowel (make sure to buy a dowel that will fit inside your roll), attached 2 key rings to each other, sliding on ring on the dowel and hooking the other ring on the screw hook that I had put into the wall. I got all of my supplies at Hobby Lobby, but you can buy them on Amazon as well or in any other craft store.

That’s it!

Based on the size of this roll of paper and the space I had to work with, I won’t be able to do any large product shoots here, but it is perfect for smaller set ups. If you have a bigger space, get a wider roll of paper and set your hooks up higher!

Here’s what it looks like in use. You can also switch out paper if you want something else (like this or this).

And here’s what it looks like when it’s rolled up. (Enjoy those Halloween-esque fingerprints on the TV, folks. That’s my kid. He particularly loves the peacock logo on NBC.)